The vermilion darter is found only
in the Turkey Creek drainage, a tributary of the Locust Fork of the Black
Warrior River, Jefferson County, Alabama. The current range of the vermilion
darter is about seven miles in the Turkey Creek system. Surveys conducted
in 2003 indicated that the vermilion darter has declined substantially in
this drainage. The greatest threat to the vermilion darter is water quality
and substrate degradation caused by sedimentation and other pollutants.

The
technical agency draft recovery plan includes specific recovery objectives
and criteria to be met in order to eventually delist the vermilion darter under
the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). The Service is soliciting
review and comment on this technical agency draft recovery plan from local,
state, and federal agencies, and the public beginning July 21, 2005.

Once
completed, the plan will serve as a guide for federal and state agencies, industries,
private groups, and individuals whose actions may affect the conservation of
this fish. The draft recovery plan calls for protection of stream habitats
and water quality, community-based watershed stewardship planning and action,
concerted education efforts, and research on the vermilion darter.

Copies
of the draft plan can be obtained by visiting our recovery plan website at http://endangered.fws.gov/recovery/index.html#plans,
or may be requested by contacting Connie Light Dickard, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, 6578 Dogwood View Parkway, Suite A, Jackson, Mississippi 39213, phone
601-321-1121. The Service will collect written public comments on its draft
recovery plan until September 19, 2005.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting
and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing
benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre
National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife
refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas.
It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices
and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal
wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory
bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and
restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments
with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program
that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing
and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies. Visit the Service’s
website at http://www.fws.gov.